Workers are
13% More Productive When Happy, Study Finds
By Science News Staff / Source
“We found that when workers are
happier, they work faster by making more calls per hour worked and,
importantly, convert more calls to sales,” said co-author Professor
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, from the Saïd Business School at the University of
Oxford.
“While the link between happiness
and productivity has often been discussed, our study provides the first causal
field evidence for this relationship. There has never been such strong
evidence.”
The study involved call center sales
workers at British Telecom, one of the United Kingdom’s largest private
employers.
They were asked to rate their
happiness on a weekly basis for six months using a simple email survey containing
five emoji buttons representing states of happiness — from very sad to very
happy.
Data on attendance, call-to-sale conversion and customer satisfaction were tracked, along with the worker’s scheduled hours and breaks.
Professor De Neve and his colleagues
from MIT and Erasmus University Rotterdam collated this information alongside
administrative data obtained from the firm on worker characteristics, work
schedules and productivity.
The study also factored in local
weather conditions and uncovered a clear negative relationship between adverse
weather conditions and the happiness of the workers.
The researchers found that happy
workers do not work more hours than their discontented colleagues — they are
simply more productive within their time at work.
“There seems to be considerable room
for improvement in the happiness of employees while they are at work,”
Professor De Neve said.
“While this clearly in the interest
of workers themselves, our analysis suggests it is also in the interests of
their employers.”
The team’s work was
published online in the Said Business School Research
Paper Series.
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Clement Bellet et al.
Does Employee Happiness have an Impact on Productivity? Saïd Business
School WP 2019-13; doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3470734